Giordano: ‘We keep shooting ourselves in the foot’

Ryan Johansen of the Columbus Blue Jackets fires a shot past Calgary Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff to put Columbus up 5-3 during the second period at the Saddledome Friday.Photo by
Ted Rhodes

As fortifications go, not exactly Helm’s Deep. Inside that parcel of free-roaming land passing for a defensive zone, they’re looser than a floozy’s morals.

“We give up too many ... tap-ins, basically,’’ murmurred defenceman Mark Giordano. “It’s easy for them to score those goals, if you look at them. Odd-man rushes and turnovers. We’re not giving up huge scoring chances, number-wise.

“But the quality is ...”

24-karat. 100 proof. 100 per cent concentrate.

As pure as it gets.

An eight-game home-ice win streak creaked, groaned and ultimately collapsed under the unbearable strain of more vaudeville slapstick Friday night. Twenty-one recorded giveaways in a wildly sloppy 6-4 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday at the Scotiabank Saddledome. More dirty 2-on-1 tagteams than Eddie (Ring-A-Ding-Dong-Dandy) Whalen used to call on Stampede Wrestling.

Gird yourselves, people. The closing month of what has already been a tempestuous season - and promises to bring even more upheaval by the April 3rd trade deadline - is going to test personal pain thresholds.

As they slowly sink out of the Western Conference playoff picture, and depending what assets are peddled between now and Wednesday, a fading belief level can’t help but sag ever further.

“I really believe that we wasted a good effort,’’ said coach Bob Hartley, whose outward power-of-positive-thinking persona is beginning to show signs of decay. “I can’t fault the effort. But turnovers has been the story of this team for way too many defeats.

“I have to give my team a really good grade for the effort, for the compete level. But managing the puck is definitely a big, big problem on this hockey club.

“I don’t what it is (the problem) but we’re very charitable.’’

The Sally Ann of the National Hockey League, in fact.

The visiting Blue Jackets never trailed on this night and wound up scoring six times on 25 shots. Miikka Kiprusoff, hardly his normal stellar self but left out to dry far too often, was hooked out of the Calgary net to start the third period and replaced by Joey MacDonald. Primary trade-talk target Jay Bouwmeester, who , and Curtis Glencross both finished minus-4. Lee Stempniak and Bouwmeester’s defensive soulmate T.J. Brodie were each minus-3.

“We keep shooting ourselves in the foot,’’ muttered Giordano.

Both feet, actually. All 10 toes have been blown off. And now they’re starting to blast indiscriminately away at the insteps.

*Matt Stajan is shorn of the puck near centre. Ryan Johansen sails off on a breakaway. Predictable result. 5-3.

“At this level, guys are too good. They make you pay for any mistakes. When you turn the puck over ... at least two turnovers on their goals are so easily avoidable that it’s mind-boggling.

“But it is what it is.’’

What it is is bad. Too bad to overcome and hope to make up any kind of ground in the standings. The six-spot allowed pushed Calgary’s goals-against to a deplorable 114, second worst, trailing only the Florida Panthers. These guys cough up more fur-balls than Garfield.

The puzzling thing about these habitual, continuous errors is the demographic of the group making them. This is an experienced bunch, as has been repeated ad nauseum. Other Flames teams during the lean years struggled mightly defensively, too, but they were predominately made up of apple-cheeked kids who needed seasoning, had to make mistakes to understand how to play, how to win.

This shouldn’t be the case here, now.

But the malady continues on, unabated.

And, yes, there CAN be a nice balance between attacking, creating chances and playing smart, sound defence.

“The best teams do it,’’ agreed Giordano. “It’s about knowing different times in the game, different situations. We’re all of in here tonight guilty of it. Careless plays. Tap-ins.

“It’s a game of momentun and there points in the game tonight where I thought we created a lot and were on them. Just one shift here and there cost us.’’

Somewhere, Christy Clark must be laughing her head off right about now. The former Liberal premier suffered...

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